Labour’s Keir Starmer has urged the government to keep Britain in the Euratom treaty that governs the movement of nuclear materials – and drop its red line on the future role of the European court of justice or risk defeat in the House of Commons.

One of Jeremy Corbyn’s most persistent critics is to quit as a Labour MP and take a job in the nuclear industry, triggering a three-way fight for his marginal northern seat with the Conservatives and Ukip.

Senior managers at EDF have told MPs that they remain convinced that the French state-controlled group should postpone the Hinkley Point project until it has solved a litany of problems, including the reactor design and multibillion-euro lawsuits over delays on similar schemes.

The boss of the French state-owned company behind the UK’s first new nuclear power station for 20 years has threatened to pull the plug on the £18bn project without further backing from François Hollande’s government.

EDF, one of the UK’s big six energy suppliers, could be in line for a £1bn windfall each year for three years from its existing coal and nuclear power stations under a controversial government-designed auction which starts on Tuesday.

Exactly two years after its north-east coast was wrecked by a deadly tsunami, Japan marked the moment that the most powerful earthquake in its recorded history triggered deadly waves that killed almost 19,000 people, while the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, promised to speed up reconstruction of flattened communities.

Labour’s Keir Starmer has urged the government to keep Britain in the Euratom treaty that governs the movement of nuclear materials – and drop its red line on the future role of the European court of justice or risk defeat in the House of Commons.

One of Jeremy Corbyn’s most persistent critics is to quit as a Labour MP and take a job in the nuclear industry, triggering a three-way fight for his marginal northern seat with the Conservatives and Ukip.